Wednesday, 28 October 2015

UK trips #3- London's 'American Idiot'

And finally I was able to see 'American Idiot'- second time lucky. This last weekend I went up to London for the day with a couple of friends to see Green Day's musical and we were so excited and definitely not disappointed at all. It was incredible hearing all these amazing songs live and I really loved their version to many of the songs, like 'Whatsername' really stood out to me as it worked out so well with the harmonies and beginning and ending with the piano and string instruments.


My favourite Green Day song, '21 Guns' was also extremely well performed, with absolutely stunning harmonies as well. 'Wake me up when September ends' was really beautiful with the three main characters playing their own acoustic guitars and singing together on the stage, it was so emotional and then joined with the drums that sounded like a heartbeat. It was just all perfect with the storyline itself being so emotional, and at times you wanted to cry from the pain and hardships the characters have to go through.
Set in a post-9-11 America, the story is about three young guys who are best friends who plan to leave their small hometown, but find themselves taking separate paths: one staying behind to be with his pregnant girlfriend, another going to join the army, while the other falls into a world of drugs and addiction. It was really intense.

I was so impressed with the musical and it made me so proud to be a Green Day fan (I also bought the tee-shirt for the musical), and I completely understand how 'American Idiot' was the winner of two Tony Awards as well as the winner for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. I would definitely see this again if I had the chance (unfortunately I don't because it's closing on the 22nd November and I have heaps of uni stuff happening in the meantime), but I'm so thankful that I did get the opportunity to see it. 'Mary Poppins' used to be my all-time favourite musical, as well as 'Sunshine on Leith' but I think 'American Idiot' has now taken over and found it's place as number one. One day, in a dream world, I would love to act in it (all three musicals, actually).


Of course, the day was also brilliant because of the food: before the show, we found a relatively cheap (well, cheap for London) place for lunch, where I had a steak that came on a hot plate so you cook it yourself, with salad and fries with a mustard seed mayonnaise dipping sauce, which was so good! And then after the performance, we went to a kebab place which was delicious, before we made our way to Abbey Road to see the famous studio and crossing. Unfortunately it was getting dark and also pouring down with rain at the time, but still, it was inspiring to go to a place so iconic. In a way, the day was a music pilgrimage. 

Monday, 26 October 2015

Hello

I'm so sorry for posting this really late, but I was really busy eating heaps of food. I know that sounds like a really lame excuse, but you don't understand how much food my flat mates and I had to get through. One of our friends from the US brought us a goody bag full of American treats, including cookie butter (which tastes like gingerbread!). It is so delicious and you can eat it straight from the jar, but we also spread it on top of nutter butter (which are these mini peanut butter biscuits) and also chocolate chip cookies, as well as rice crispy bars with melted marshmallow holding them together... for those who are reading this and from America: you are so lucky to have these things in your life because I certainly entered food heaven! I'm not going to lie, but there were seven of us sharing all this food and I ate probably (no joke) 60% of it, if not more.

Okay, back to the song of the day, which is Adele's new release 'Hello' which came out a few days ago. The first thing I did that day was go onto iTunes and buy it, because I LOVE Adele so much and have been waiting years for this moment. And I certainly wasn't disappointed, because she has created such an incredibly heartfelt song that (as always) and is sung with so much passion and it hits you right to the soul. Adele is always worth the wait because her work is mind-blowing and her voice is just WOW. I'm not going to say anything more, other than to close your eyes, get rid of all distractions and listen to the music...

Wednesday, 21 October 2015

The awkward moment when... #3

I actually wrote this a few months back but forgot to actually publish it, so some of these moments are out of date now (eg. you're now over the guy you used to like). But here are a few more true awkward moments when…

-you wake yourself up in the middle of the night because you were laughing loudly in your sleep… the next morning you remember what made you laugh in your dream and realise it wasn’t actually funny

-you send an assignment to your tutor, and accidentally call them the wrong name in the email, so you look really stupid before they even read the essay

-it’s 2am in the morning and you’re still writing your essay and you start quoting Queen and think it’s acceptable

-you're in class and you feel someone breathing really close to your ear and turn to find you teacher leaning in to whisper something to you. Now your faces are only a couple of millimetres apart

-the guy you like asks you to be his wingman... ouch
I think 'New Girl' is always going to show up in the awkward moments 
-someone asks you out and you say no because you were wanting to do housework instead

-you are sharing an umbrella with your dad and talking and laughing. Then you overhear the two guys behind you saying "how did that old guy manage to get a woman like her?"
NOOOOO!!!! Just NO! Ewwww!

-you accidentally make a winky face instead of a smiley face in a message and it changes the meaning completely. What makes it even more horrific (because believe me, it's nightmarishly horrific already), it's sent to the guy you like and you've really made the wrong impression

-you realise part of your life is starting to resemble one of your favourite tv shows... but that's not a good thing (and it's not 'New Girl')

-while waiting for your friend to try on clothing at a store, in your boredom you walk around the clothes and not pay attention to what you're looking at. Someone walks past you and gives you a strange look, and you realise you are in the maternity clothes section.

This was actually what their faces looked like 



Monday, 19 October 2015

MrSuicideSheep

Okay, it's not the cheeriest title in the world, sorry, but it is the name of a youtube channel that has incredible remixes of songs. I've discovered a lot of music from there and it's so good how they have remixes of different styles:
-experimental
-chill out/downtempo
-dub step and garage
-indie electronica
-house
-mixes
which means it will suit a wide range of moods. It's the sort of music that is good when you are just pottering around the kitchen, making lunch or dinner and you just want to listen to something. Or when you need some background music when doing your homework, but it could also be the type of music to dance around your room too- it really depends what type of remix you are listening to at the time. It's good when you're exhausted as well, which is definitely the type of mood I'm in now. I've been doing a lot of things recently, going to bed late, going out, doing heaps of readings, etc. On the Friday night, I didn't get home until 5am in the morning and had to get up at 9:30am and this morning I had to wake up at 7:30 so I could walk to uni... and that's why I'm listening to MrSuicideSheep before going to bed and hopefully falling asleep straight away.

Because there is such a big selection of remixes to choose from, this is that one that I'm currently listening to while writing this. It's also one of my favourites, called:


Thursday, 15 October 2015

UK trips #1 #2 - London and Cambridge

Over the last couple of weekends, I've taken advantage of being in the UK and started my explorations of different towns and cities. My first trip was to London where I spent the time with my mum, who was there on holidays. It was really great to see her and she took my friend and I out for lunch to a pub, where I had a really nice burger and curly fries. I'd never heard of curly fries before, but apparently they are a big deal here, so I tried them and sure enough, they were delicious. For those who were like me, and had no idea what they were, they are basically a fry that is curly (shock there) with seasoning on it which makes them taste like wedges.

our lunch
Later, we walked along the Thames, passing the Globe Theatre along the way and seeing Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral and The Houses of Parliament in the distance. While in London, we also walked around Trafalgar Square and down to Buckingham Palace and we were so lucky with the weather, as it was blue skies and sunny. But my absolute favourite part of London was the area known as TheatreLand- there were theatres everywhere! It was incredible and walking around the streets, it reaffirmed why I chose to go to England to study. There were more theatres in just one street than in the whole of Australia it felt like. Mum and I also bought half price tickets to see 'American Idiot' which I was so excited about because: GREEN DAY!!!! A musical with the best Green Day songs (that include my favourite '21 Guns') is the best type of musical to see. I was so excited and I even got my mum excited about it too, which is skills on my part. However, when we arrived at the theatre, there was a note on the door saying that the day's session was cancelled due to numerous cast members being unwell... and that was deflating. But we did take a photo of the outside because it is a promise to myself that I WILL see 'American Idiot' while I'm here.

I decided to show this photo, because every time someone talks about London, we always see the typical iconic pictures. 
The following weekend, a couple of my friends and I spent the day exploring Cambridge, which is such a beautiful town, with such lovely old architecture. Now, most people who go to Cambridge go punting along the river Cam, taking in the surrounding colleges from the university: not us. Instead, we went on a food safari! Being the weekend, there was a market on, where there was a stall selling incredible looking homemade slices, so we bought a slice each (they were massive). I had the granola slice, which was so sweet and syrupy; amazing! We then had a falafel wrap each, which we bought from one of the street pop-up stalls which was also delicious. And then we went to a lollie shop, as well as a fudge shop (where I tasted a lot of different flavours before deciding on which flavour to buy) and then finishing the gastronomic excursion by going to a cafe and having scones with jam and cream. And the cream in England is beyond heavenly; it's so thick, thicker than butter. In Australia, we have cream, but it's nothing like that.

The lollie shop with the reflection of a college in the window




Monday, 12 October 2015

Come Monday Night

At the beginning of this year I wrote a post about the song 'God Help the Girl' which I described as the "anti-cringe-worthy-moment song" and I mentioned how I wanted to see the movie for so long... Well, I finally watched the movie a couple of days ago and I loved it! It took me long enough to find a way to watch it (thank you to my friend who let me use their Netflix).

The movie is about a girl (played by Emma Browning) who had an eating disorder and was sent to a rehabilitation hospital, but she kept running away because of her love and passion for music. She ends up meeting this guy (who is by Ollie Alexander, the lead singer of 'Years & Years') and his music tutor pupil (Hannah Murray, who plays Cassie in 'Skins') and together they try to start a band. It's not exactly a typical musical, but it's got music incorporated into the story, which is all written by Belle and Sebastian. It's filmed with nice cinematography, which really suits this independent feature and the story is really charming, set during one Summer in Glasgow.

But back to the song of the day: "Come Monday Night" which has a really sweet tune and vocals. The lyrics themselves may seem a bit simplistic at first glance, wording observations, but they are poetic, for example:

"Come Monday night we turn the telly off,
To listen to the silence,
Light that comes in from outside,
If you could catch it all
And pin it to your wall" 

And then when you think about it, the words are actually quite profound with hidden metaphors, different for everyone who listens. 



Wednesday, 7 October 2015

The Roller Disco

On Sunday, I went to a Roller Disco!!!! I know! AMAZING! When I was a kid, I loved roller-blading so much and because I didn't own any rollerblades, my mum would take me to the Roller-blading Centre, where I would spend an entire day skating around on the rink and thinking that nothing could get better than that. The last time I went rollerblading was on my 12th birthday, so I was so excited to find out that this university was hosting this evening. I could once again feel that exhilaration of zooming through space and not caring about a thing in the world! However, Sunday wasn't what I expected it to be like.

Firstly: I roller-bladed when I was younger. I never roller-skated which is completely different; it is so much harder. So what I thought would be a night of reliving childhood, turned out to be a night of mixed feelings of fear, horror, but also fun, rollerskating for the first time.
Roller-blades
Roller-skates

It took me a while to figure out how to balance and actually move, but after the first ten minutes, I got the hang of it. When I was little, I was actually good at roller-blading, but roller-skating, I just became okay at. I wasn't that fast and sometimes I would wobble and wasn't completely confident with my ability, but I was able to get by without too many dramas. Well, until...

Secondly: some people shouldn't be allowed to roller-skate. And those people are the ones who think they are better than what they actually are. There was one girl who was cutting in front of people and she was moving her arms around like crazy in an attempt to dance to the music. I'm going to sound like a horrible person saying this, but she was a safety hazard because she wasn't actually very good at roller-skating and had no cares about the people around her. Exhibit A: ME!!!!!
The girl cut in front of me and because of her disregard of others, she startled me and I went crashing into a wall, which also had a window built into it. Unfortunately the corner of the window that stuck out, was the same level as the bridge of my nose, right between my eyes. My forehead went "WHAM!" into the wall and my nose went "WHACK!" into the corner of wall and window... I ended up having a bump on my forehead (which has thankfully gone down) and a swollen and bruised nose (which is still swollen and bruised). Also, I think a bit of bone on my nose is sticking out a bit differently than how it used to.
And the girl just kept on skating, oblivious to what havoc she had just caused... what a [insert R rated language here].

But despite those few minor hiccups, the evening was actually pretty fun and just like when I was little, I didn't want to leave the floor and for a while after the DJ stopped playing music, I was still skating a few laps.



Monday, 5 October 2015

High by the beach

Today was my first day of classes and it was also the first day since I've moved here that it has rained. It rained non-stop, whereas a few days ago, I got sunburnt on my nose because it was so sunny (who would have thought it). But this morning while preparing my breakfast and making my lunch, I was listening to Lana Del Rey's relatively new song "High by the beach" on repeat. It's such a good early morning song when no one else is around and you can sway dance around the kitchen without anyone judging you. I also think that with the falling rain outside, I feel like it suits my mood whenever it's this kind of weather, that lethargic and out-of-it state.

I absolutely love Lana Del Rey's 'Born to die' and 'Paradise' albums so much and can listen to it over and over and still have the need to dance and sing along to, but her 'Ultraviolence' album, I feel like it was more of a background music sort of album. I still really liked it, but I think that not all the songs stood out that much for me. At the beginning of 'High by the beach', when I first heard it, I thought that this song too would be background music, with the sighing in the introduction and the soft singing at the beginning... but then the beat drops and OHMYGOD! it's incredible and you can't help but move your body along with it and that's when you get really into the song and you are spellbound. The lyrics in the chorus is repetitive, but the rhythm just flows through the body and it's like you are in a trance state (hence, why it's great for when you are getting ready in the morning and are still half asleep). It really encapsulates that mindset of drifting through different states of consciousness. And that is the genius of Lana Del Rey.